19 Responses for "Street Runway: Five Random Shots"

1. lovelyprincess September 2nd, 2008 at 9:31 pm 1

   I like all of these styles, and even though I am not Korean, I can get away with wearing this stuff because I am petite and thin. I just don’t like it when girls wear slingbacks and they walk on the straps or let the straps fly out in back like the girl in the last pic.

2. nickowns September 2nd, 2008 at 10:42 pm 2

   Yo…the guy’s handbag is even black….thats whats up! Personally..I think black on black on black is slick, but it’s sometimes hard to get those blacks to match up well.

3. impolite one September 2nd, 2008 at 11:47 pm 3

   You asked for opinions… hehe.. well you probably already know what I think, so I won’t bother. However, it’s rare you feature a guy, and seeing as though I rep that team, I’ll do the laundry list on his outfit:

   all poly-blend? check
   fake Louis Vuitton tie? check
   ridiculously gaudy and fake Gucci belt? check. Now about this though, I am not an authenticity nazi and don’t really care if other people buy knockoffs if it’s a money thing, but that particular belt is just a really weak showing, it’s almost joke status. He should’ve stuck with a non-branded belt in this case.
   Ill-fitting pants? check. Koreans have no idea what a proper hem height for men’s trousers should be. They most definitely should not have that many breaks for that silhouette.
   Cheap square toed shoes from the days of yore? check.
   Vinyl’y plastic looking manpurse? check. I thought he was carrying his girl’s purse, until I realized she was toting her own.

   Now, clearly, this guy didn’t have a lot to spend on his outfit, but he really did seem ambitious, with both fake Louis and fake Gucci. I can’t besmerch him for wanting to get dressed up, but he really could’ve gotten a better looking outfit that would be nowhere near as tacky, from Costco, being dead serious. There is just no real reason for this kind of outfit.

4. glo September 3rd, 2008 at 2:19 am 4

   i totally understand that korean women constantly want to be thought of as feminine or pretty but sometimes the fashion and most importantly the frills and lace, take it to an entire different level. I like the mix of the second picture (a chic tailored bolero with a more delicate piece) but man that last picture… hahah. anyways i love the korean fashion and i copy it myself but too much of anything is eh.. tacky.

5. tinaxxe September 3rd, 2008 at 2:54 am 5

   how can you tell they’re fake? –> the tie and bag, i mean

6. theo September 3rd, 2008 at 4:05 am 6

   how can you tell he’s korean?

7. Jae Young September 3rd, 2008 at 5:53 am 7

   Dude, I almost fell over when I saw the Gucci belt. hahaha, omg love, SO Korean. It also just goes to show why wearing all black is a bad idea. (I say this as a New Yorker through and through.) Black is such a hard color to dye well and when you have 6 different blacks on one body, oh wait, no, 7, it can be disastrous.

   The lady in the green top and white trousers gets points for wearing an outfit that is not dripping frills and lace and bows, though of course the requisite (fake) LV bag hangs from her shoulders. I’m guessing by the shape that it’s fake, though I am rather in love with the color. I have a love of hot pink in unexpected places. It’s kind of a sanitized Indian look, but I still like it. That and the green, nice color. So I approve of her choice of color.

   I won’t even bother to talk about anyone else though I find the wash of the skinny jeans lacking although thank God there are no gross fades. I’ve become a bit of a denim snob with age tho, alas.

   I do get the feeling that some of these people put on stuff because they like each one singularly and give no thought to the entire effect. Ignoring of course the fact that many of the singular items themselves are dubious in flava, oh the woman wearing 5 shades of white, why why? Even then, it’s not the idea, because I’ve seen people wear 5 shades of white and it’s interesting. There’s just no cohesive idea behind the outfit. Or it’s just that Korean blending-in-ness that drives me a bit mad.

8. Bones September 3rd, 2008 at 11:58 am 8

   Yeah, the couple in the first pic had a good idea, but they blew it with Gucci belt, the black and yellow shoes and the male with the bag. Also her bag looks brown.

   1. Change the belt buckle to silver or grey, get rid of the shoulder bag.

   2. Change her shoes to all black or black and white.
   get rid of the bag and carry a purse.

9. Maximus September 3rd, 2008 at 5:35 pm 9

   I hope I won’t get another “let’s be nice” reply to my comment here…

   I lilke the all-black style, although I hate these thin ties. Nice ties are wider, in my opinion. And the bag is really feminine, but here is Korea. The belt was already mentioned.

   I think the best outfit is the gree/white combination: simple, casual and beautiful. The one besides it is simply terrible, as well as the last one.

   The one with the jeans could be better without the ribbon.

   Ok, did this one passed on the “let’s be nice” control?

10. impolite one September 4th, 2008 at 9:56 am 10

    There’s nothing wrong inherently with skinny ties, they are a good, yet played out look. Skinny ties really only work with a super trim, fitted top and bottom though, and better on skinny guys. This tie in question isn’t all that skinny really, it’s just stiff and polyester, and looks stupid. The guy is also too big for it, and is wearing his clothes too big for him as well, so they’re just pooling up into a poly-blend mess.
    The black skinny ties are just a remnant of the Dior Homme knockoff craze and it’s aftermath that happened 2-3 years ago in Korea, they go with the short collar shirts and the black polyester-blend peak-lapel 1 button shrunken blazers that every Korean guy wore. Every now and again, we are gonna see stuff like this wash up here and there, and guys will try to mix it in with other completely unrelated knockoff stuff and it will be a mess, like this guy.

    There’s also nothing wrong with all-black, and it works well if you have the clothes to back it up. For those complaining about tones of black not matching perfectly, well, such is life, but no one really notices anyway, and it seriously would not bother anyone if they did. There are far more important things to worry about, like cut, build quality, and fabric.
    The guy in the picture though, he’s wearing a polyester shirt, tie, and pants, and polyester just doesn’t refract colors the same way a natural fiber does, and he looks cheap and tacky. His girlfriend is in the same boat, but is wearing half white poly and half black poly.

    Re: his bag, I have nothing against men carrying bags, they are functional and part of living in a city. A man with a bag is a man with something going on in his life. The problem with this guy’s bag though, is that it is too small, it’s smaller than his girl’s bag even. Leather bags work for real men, and I like totes and duffles, but they need to be of the right size for them not to look girly. Wearing them over the shoulder like this guy is doing isn’t really advised either.

11. Flower73 September 4th, 2008 at 10:42 am 11

    Hello, everyone, I wanted to introduce me, I’m from Venezuela, and already I have enough time to visit this magazine and I say that fascinates me, I love your work, so I signed, I hope to share with you my points of views from this side of the map , Greetings to everyone.

12. Maximus September 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm 12

    “A man with a bag is a man with something going on in his life”

    IMHO, if “bag” in this case means something closer to a suitcase (not a 007 style, but more modern, of course), fine. If it resembles a woman’s bag/purse, this doesn’t work. And I strongly disagree with the “living in a city” part: this means that you need to have a woman’s bag to walk around? Again, something similar to a case, yes. A feminine bag only fits females.

13. impolite one September 4th, 2008 at 3:26 pm 13

    For a guy living in Seoul, a bag of some sort is a functional must. Even if you ride public transport or not. I actually don’t carry a bag in Seoul sometimes, but I have 4 pants pockets on me and anything big like a book would require a bag, so i always have one. Between your wallet, your keys, your pack of cigarettes and lighter, your ipod, your books and documents, you really need a bag. A purse over the shoulder like that guy, yeah, no.
    Look for me in Seoul with the huge grey Raf Simons X Eastpak bag, I’ll be hard to miss, because it’s a meter tall, haha.

14. nathan September 5th, 2008 at 11:37 am 14

    is it the wrinkle raf backpack? hahaha.

    just making sure, with so many knock off raf bags these days!

15. impolite one September 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am 15

    nah, definitely not, it’s the grey S/S runway piece that came out really late. I can’t do the version 2 ones

16. Jae Young September 6th, 2008 at 12:24 am 16

    I am okay with the over the shoulder bag. Let the metro look reign. You just better have the bag to back it up. There is something about these otherwise macho men with the over the shoulder hand bag. The ludicrious-ness of it makes Korean fashion so fun.

    The all black look does bother me but again, I’m from NY, so I sort of see an all black look as phoning it in.

17. djrajio September 7th, 2008 at 12:58 am 17

    Ouch.

    Well seeing that I’m from Tokyo some of these looks aren’t too bad. The women in the green and white would look fine anywhere in Ginza/Aoyama, etc. And the girl with the pearls wouldn’t have a hard time here either, but probably could do without the earrings and looping the pearls through her bow.

    But yes, the guy is a disaster.

    All black is very hard to pull off and should really be saved for a funeral or a night out to formal event.

    Secondly is the blantant brand whoring. LV tie + Gucci belt is just wrong. I’m a big stickler of no logos/labels on my clothing and this just screams trying too hard

    I don’t really have any thing against the shirt per say but if you do a tie, make sure you put collar stands in your collar, otherwise it comes off sloppy like this.

    The bag is fine, at least for Tokyo standards. I’ve seen guys rock women’s Chanel and Balenciaga bags so it can’t get more feminine than that.

    Finally the Kenneth Cole square toed plastic sole “shoes” should be burned.

18. Chochika September 22nd, 2008 at 3:39 pm 18

    This is definitely interesting. While I won’t bother commenting on whether i like some of these outfits or not, I will say that after living in Taipei much of my life I’m used to seeing (and cringing at) these lacy, floral, uber feminine getups.

    Most girls in my generation, in their late teens and early twenties, will avoid these type of clothes. Older ladies, however, will often comment on how “cute” and “pretty” these kind of clothes are. My mother flies back and forth, sometimes bringing me samples of such frocks. It is, however, my resolution not to look like the old lacy curtains hanging from my grandmother’s windows.

19. lovelyprincess September 24th, 2008 at 8:11 pm 19

    Not so sure about that Chochika. I see girls as young as teens all the way up to 50s and older wearing florals and lace. It’s all over Korea. Always has been.